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U-46 updates school safety drills, SRO training and reunification planning
Summary
District Director of School Safety Rich Bosch told the U-46 Board of Education the district is in compliance with state-required drills, is expanding audits and staff training, and has run a multi-district reunification exercise with Kane County partners; he also described steps taken after a rise in edged-weapon incidents last year.
Rich Bosch, director of school safety for Elgin School District U-46, told the Board of Education on Feb. 10 that the district is in compliance with state-mandated safety drills and is expanding school audits, professional development and reunification planning.
Bosch said the district is meeting requirements for evacuation, bus evacuation, severe weather and law-enforcement drills for the 2023–24 school year and plans to complete remaining bus evacuations by June for submission to the Regional Office of Education. He said schools also train on Secure Building, Hold-in-Place and common-language responses so staff and outside responders use the same terms during incidents.
The update is intended to give board members an overview of U-46’s safety practices and why administrators consider drills and audits essential. “We want students to have a voice” during debriefs and staff to raise operational concerns, Bosch said, adding that the district does not favor coded language because it can cause confusion among responding agencies.
Bosch described several complementary safety activities:
- Building safety audits that check door security, visitor management (Raptor), camera placement, lighting and landscaping; plant operations and communications coordinate changes when issues are found.
- Monthly tests of panic buttons timed with local siren tests; staff are instructed to report faults so work orders can be issued.
- Ongoing coordination with 14 school resource officers (SROs) and invitations to neighboring municipalities that do not have assigned officers. Bosch said SROs attend annual training including CPI familiarity exercises, autism-awareness guidance and a three-day School Resource Officers Conference in Bloomington.
- A multi-district reunification training last June with the Kane County Regional Office of Education and nine local districts; about 300 administrators participated in scenario-based exercises that followed the I Love You Guys Foundation model, Bosch said.
Bosch also described a recent decline in referrals for edged weapons after the district updated search procedures and reinforced expectations with students and families. He said District Safety worked with legal counsel to revise search-and-seizure procedures, held classroom conversations about random searches that are permitted under the student code of conduct, and trained administrators on reasonable suspicion and minimally intrusive searches. “As you can see, our data from last year, first semester to this year, first semester dropped dramatically with edged weapons referrals,” he said, adding that continued vigilance is required and that the district is not “100% safe.”
Board members asked whether reunification relies solely on district staff or on mutual aid; Bosch said U-46 would request support through the Regional Office of Education and expect assistance from other, smaller districts as needed. He also confirmed the district shares action guides and response language with municipal partners so responders use common terminology.
Board members thanked Bosch and district staff for the work coordinating safety with facilities, communications and emergency partners. Bosch said district staff are coordinating secured-entrance features and camera placement for new facilities to improve safety while keeping schools welcoming.
Bosch concluded by inviting questions from the board.
